Scottish Opera are on finest form for their 60th birthday. Here’s to 60 more years of superlative work like this.
📍The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
📅 SUN 05 JUN TO SAT 11 JUN 2022
🕖 Evenings, 7.15pm | Matinee, 3pm | Relaxed Performance, 3pm on 10 June
🕖 Running time (approx.): 3 hours 15 minutes (includes a 20 min. interval)
👥 Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
👥 Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte
👥 Director: Sir Thomas Allen
👥 Conductor: Stuart Stratford (16-18 June: Derek Clark)
💰 From £22.50
🎂 6+
🎭 Audio Description: Sat 11 June 7.15PM
Don Giovanni opened on the 28th October 1787 to a euphoric welcome from the music lovers of Vienna. By the middle of the subsequent century it would be one Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s favourite opera, bar none, and centuries of audiences around the world have shared in that admiration. Yet, in an age of substantially advanced sexual politics, will Mozart’s tragicomedy continue to amuse?
The answer, you’ll be pleased to know, is a resounding YES.
The story of a noble Venetian libertine, one Don Giovanni (Roland Wood – Jonathan Glover takes over from the 9th June), this fabulous — in the original sense — opera tells a tale of the dark fate awaiting the morally bankrupt. Accompanied by manservant Seporello (Zachary Altman), Giovanni habitually slays the ladies, but begins proceedings with the actual slaying of the Commendatore (Keel Watson), enraged father of latest victim Donna Anna (Hye-Youn Lee). Utterly unfussed by said life-taking, Giovanni moves onto the other skirt-wearing occupants of Seville, leaving the woman he attempted to rape (after breaking into her house), to mourn, and cultivate a desire for vengeance, along with her beloved Don Ottavio (Pablo Bemsch).
The music, as performed under the astute direction of Stuart Stratford, is an absolute delight, from the first notes of the overture, to the final before curtain down. Mozart’s music dances through the octaves, weaving a melodic web in D minor when tragic, and major when comic. Effortlessly melodic even at its most complex, the score remains a marvel of creative endeavour. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera are in fine form, as ever, and give every indication of loving every moment with the maestro’s compositions.
Our anti-hero’s adventures continue, but whilst he sets his eyes on lower-class maiden, and recently betrothed, Zerlina (Lea Shaw), he encounters two obstacles: her fiancé, Masetto (Emyr Wyn Jones), and former scorned lover, and another influential noble Donna Elvira (Kitty Whately). Of course, Giovanni views these as nuisances to be managed, rather than moral quandaries, and conspires with the sometimes reluctant Seporello to overcome them. What follows is one part comedy of errors, and one part cautionary tale.
Were one to consider Giovanni’s M.O. the comedy might seem out of place, after all, he is a house-breaking rapist, and murderer, but Irvine Welsh has been dominating best-sellers lists with the ‘funny’ side of some truly awful people for decades now. It’s a human truth, continually rediscovered, that humour is always near when tragedy strikes.
Further, librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, makes sure that the miscreant comes to a very bad end indeed. For a centuries old tale, there’s no hint of approval, or hero-worship, Giovanni may be charming, may have the bravery (stupidity?), and looks of a matinee idol, but he’s still a scumbag who deserves execution.
Performances are strong across the board, though Altman’s well-timed, and expressive Seporello is sometimes so amusing, as to steal the scene from Wood’s swaggering Giovanni. Which isn’t to say the leading man underplays his role, his performance well-shaded with both menace and style.
Vocally, the honours ultimately lie with Soprano Hye-Youn Lee and Mezzo-Soprano Lea Shaw, the former exhibiting both power, and stamina in the challenging role; the latter offering a crystal sweetness of tone entirely apt to her simultaneously worldly, and naïve Zerlina. Which isn’t to say there are any weak links, rather that these two managed to stand out amidst an excellent cadre.
The Venetian set, courtesy of designer, Simon Higlett, is suitably imposing, an evolving tapestry of dark alleys, canal paths, and grand halls, atmospherically lit by Mark Jonathan. The opera cognoscenti will no doubt note that Mozart’s Don Giovanni is set in Seville, not Venice, perhaps director, Sir Thomas Allen, here reviving his own 2013 production, finding this more apt for an opera sung in Italian. Higlett certainly delights in this grander palette for costumery, not least in the creepily masked stage-hands and faceless nuns who silently attend the gorgeously attired principals.
Upon this sometimes unsettling stage, Allen certainly moves his players with a deft hand, never losing site of the central morality tale, but unafraid to linger on a beautiful scene, or aria, to give it its moment in the sun. The finest accolade though, surely results from the ease with which the 3 hours, plus change, of performance, slip by unnoticed by an enthralled, and entertained auditorium.
Peppering the drama, are a few unquestionably remarkable set-pieces, involving fire and brimstone to underline the damnation awaiting the unrepentant sinner. All in all it’s a grandly dark affair, but one which never forgets to entertain either. Giovanni’s finale, though, might lack a little bit of the gravitas, and spectacular weight intended by librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, the scene coming off a tad stiff, and simultaneously rushed.
Nonetheless Don Giovanni makes for yet another grand night with Scottish Opera for lovers of beautiful music, beautifully sung, and beautifully staged. In the 60th year since Sir Alexander Gibson founded Scottish Opera, the company shows every sign of being capable of another 60, and hopefully far, far more.
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